Hi:
Hope everyone had a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.
According to a report in USA Today, the rise of Cyber Week during the holiday shopping season has helped to ease the desire to wake up at 3 AM on Black Friday to be the first in line to buy that new toaster at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Ergo, we don't have the mess that we had all those years with folks getting violent on Black Friday.
I feared last year that Black Friday was going to be a bloodbath. Between the inflation (that is still an issue) the supply chain issues (which thankfully seem to have subsided) and just the fact that many of us hadn't been out and about because of COVID-19, it had the recipe for a rough day.
But thankfully it was relatively peaceful and now this year as well. At least there were no fights over Christmas gifts. We did of course have a couple of mass shootings.
NEWS ITEM: MORE GUN VIOLENCE
On Tuesday night just after 10 PM, a manager at a Walmart in Chesapeake, used a 9 mm hand gun to kill 7 of his co-workers and injure 6 others before taking his own life.
There was a note he left on his phone, essentially apologizing in advance for his actions and laying the blame on Satan. It's usually either God or Satan's fault in these things. Never the nutjob with the gun.
And naturally, the gunman purchased his weapon and ammo that morning. Background checks? We don't need no background checks!
You want to tell me a background check may not have stopped this? Maybe, but the fact that he was able to purchase the gun in the morning and wipe out a bunch of his co-workers that night shouldn't give anyone pause?
Then there was the shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub last weekend. a 22 year old man walked into an LGBQ nightclub just before midnight on Saturday and opened fire. 5 dead, 25 injured before he was confronted and wrestled down by two heroes.
There still hasn't been a motive determined, but a possible hint came from the shooter's estranged father who at first said he was surprised his kid was in a LGBQ nightclub because "we're Mormon's and we don't do gay."
See it's either God or Satan.
In either one of these horrible cases, common sense gun regulations might have helped, probably would have helped. But we've made it so that you can get a gun as easily as you can get a Big Mac at McDonalds. You can scream "mental health issues" all you want, the issue is still guns, and the easy availability of them. To paraphrase President Biden: "now there are more tables that will have empty chairs this Thanksgiving." And at the rate we're going, they'll be ever more empty chairs at Christmas.
Happy Holidays America.
Had to get that off my chest. Onto other things....
FOOTBALL:
Let's address the Zach Wilson benching a bit more then when we touched on it Wednesday night.
So I am of two minds here. The Bears defense is amongst the NFL's worst, so this may have been a good way for Wilson to cure himself of what ailed him against the Patriots last week.
But to be honest, I don't think that's why he's riding the pine today.
I believe that is due to his not accepting responsibility for the team's loss last week. Responding "no, no" when asked if he felt like he let the defense down. That caused a bit of a rift in the locker and understandably so. Part of the job of a QB, especially in this town, is to own your mistakes. Wilson may have had an issue with the reporter who asked the question (I heard that bouncing around sports talk radio world this week) he may have not been thinking clearly. He may just be an immature 23 year old who is still learning his way around both on and off the field. I'm quite sure he is not a purely selfish person who doesn't take responsibility for his actions.
But he does need to learn the lessons here. And if that means taking a couple weeks to marinate on the bench, then that's the price he pays.
Mike White of course, went out and played a near flawless game. 3 touchdown passes, 315 yards passing, no interceptions. Did White play awesome football? Or was he the playing against a defense that could make any QB look like Tom Brady?
We will get a better idea next week when the Jets play the Vikings who are having a great season.
The Giants meanwhile ruined my in-law's Thanksgiving by falling apart in the second half on Thursday evening in Dallas. To be fair they are decimated by injuries and the Cowboys were coming off a big blowout win against one of the top teams record wise in the NFC, the aforementioned Vikings. It looks like Dallas may have righted the ship.
And the first game on Thanksgiving, for the second year in a row, I got screwed by the Lions getting the back door cover. I stopped picking the Lions on Thanksgiving because it seems like they never win that game anymore. And they still don't. But last year against the Bears and this year against the Bills, they lost on last second field goals. If the Bills weren't going to cover the 9.5 they were laying, then I wanted then to freakin lose. They won and didn't cover, so I got the double whammy.
LEGAL: Hot Judge in Hot Water
According to TMZ, a judge in Columbia, who has a reputation for posting provocative pics of herself to her Instagram account, appeared on virtual court hearing drunk and half naked.
Vivian Polania was hearing a case about an alleged car bomber, so this wasn't some guy selling pot to an undercover (which I guess is not even against the law anymore anyway). And she appeared on the Zoom video, with out any pants on. TMZ says she was wearing lingerie, but take a look for yourself, that looks like a sweater, a t-shirt and nothing from the waist down. She was also smoking a cigarette, which I found disgusting, but there was a time where judges and lawyers were allowed to smoke in court.
But they were never allowed to leave their pants at home. And when she spoke, it seemed apparent that she had a liquid breakfast, and I'm not talking about a smoothie either.
This reminded me of my favorite story I helped work on at the Post, I've talked about it here before. There was a judge who kept a "male enhancement pump" under his bench. I suggested the headline should be "Here come da judge!" They editors love it, and they used it as the photo caption.
The photo isn't in the story here, but here is the original Post story from 2004.
SOCCER: The World Cup
I got to see a most of the game on Friday between the US and England. Some observations.
1) One thing I love about the World Cup, when they say the game starts at 2 PM, it starts at 2 PM. 2 PM isn't when they sing the national anthems or bring Pele out to do an honorary face-off. I turned the game on at 2:02, and they were already 2 minutes in. Shame on me for not putting it on on time.
2) There wasn't too much of it in Friday's match, but I still crack up when guys who barely get touched flop to the ground like they just got nailed by Chuck Bednarik.* As the tournament goes on, we'll see more of that I guarantee that.
3) As for the game itself, the US had a couple of chances to score and even the announcers thought that they settled for the tie at the end, but still this was quite an accomplishment against one of the best teams in the world. It would have been nice if they hadn't blown the game against Wales, they would already be into the next round (I think). Now it's win or go home against Iran on Tuesday.
Well, that’s all I have to say.. Salud!
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*If you don’t get that reference, Google that name and Frank Gifford and you’ll see what I mean.
No comments:
Post a Comment